Something New

Creativity lives in paradox: serious art is born from serious play.
– Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

Sharing a few process images. Or more like sharing some of the steps I took while trying to create something new, something I have never seen before.

For these, that was my only intention. I knew I wanted an unexpected or not yet explored perspective. I started with one image, a vacation portrait in this case, and scrolled through my images until something caught my attention. I experimented with different images, changing orientation sometimes, as I blended the images together.

It takes time to build new things. It takes time to sort through directions that you learn do not serve you and it takes time to pave room for new possibilities. It takes courage and heart to keep trying sometimes, because it is easy to get discouraged when what you are trying does not seem to result in what you hoped. It’s easy to lose sight of all the knowledge you have already gained and all the progress you have already made, especially when you do not pause and look around.

Sharing a few vacation images. Or more like sharing a few vacation images I used to process all the things I bottled up while on vacation, pleasant and less pleasant.

For these, that was my only intention. I recognized a bubbling up of emotion that I wanted to either make more sense of or simply release. Art making helps me do just that. I started with that strong desire to create something new and as I let myself freely create I allowed space to also explore what was happening around and inside me that might have contributed to my emotional experience. I journaled to flesh out my thoughts.

Vacations now require something new of me. Adjusting to being a single parent, in all the details and challenges of my particular expression in that role, it takes time to build new patterns. It takes time to sort through directions that you learn do not serve you and it takes time to pave room for new possibilities. It takes courage and heart to keep trying sometimes, because it is easy to get discouraged when what you are trying does not seem to result in what you hoped. It’s easy to lose sight of all the knowledge you have already gained and all the progress you have already made, especially when you do not pause and look around.

Resilience and a deep sense of accomplishment come from the length of time you can tolerate being in this uncomfortable learning space. This learning space involves repeated experimentation, sometimes guess and check. I can only know it when I experience it and feel whether it aligns or not. So I try to be gentle here, because I know the time it takes and the discomfort involved are worth it.

Creativity lives in paradox: serious art is born from serious play.
Creative living lives in paradox: serious attunement is born from serious play.